Christmas...finally

So I finally got the pictures downloaded so here we go! I was not up to my normal this Christmas and I feel kinda bad about that, but we still had a great holiday, including our trip.

Carlyn had a ballet recital and was the most adorable one there. I know, others will disagree, but they'll be wrong. :)

Her teacher, Martina is in the back with the older class. On the front Jane, Emma, Grace, Daxia, & Carlyn

Carlyn at her preschool Christmas program. She knew her part really well but was shy about saying it. I was trying to catch Darren from running away and almost missed it.

Almost every time I tried to take a picture our neighborhood boy, Cache, stood up or pulled a face :) So here is one of Carlyn not looking at me, but you can see her. She's in the back in the pink dress.

Here is our pathetic Christmas tree. Carlyn was the only one who decorated this year. Rick doesn't care, Annie and I were sick and Darren had too much fun pulling them off. So we had one little section decorated this year.

Our ward made stockings and pillowcases at Enrichment meeting in December, but I was sick, so when I went to my parent's house for a couple days before Christmas I sewed them up. I already had the material and my mom helped me make the stockings. I think they turned out very cute. Here is Annie showing them off. I made the stockings opposite colors for girls vs. boy. We'll see if the boy one I made will work for next year in June.

This is cute Darren in his Christmas jammies. He can't fall asleep without his bottle and bear.

I love Christmas Eve and the tradition of having a fancy dinner. Then we open one present: pajamas. Darren got Thomas (his new favorite), Annie got Tinkerbell, and Carlyn got High School Musical jammies. Christmas morning was very low key with just a few presents (due to our trip.) We gave the kids stuffed animals from Disneyland to remember the trip. Santa gave Carlyn some rings and a necklace; Annie lipgloss, a bracelet, and necklace; Darren got a truck. They were about $4 each and my kids couldn't have cared less. :) They loved them because they got just what they wanted. The kids gave me a can opener and Rick some shorts. Rick and I gave each other movies and found it funny that I gave him the chick flick and he gave me the sports movie. The kids gave each other little presents too and had as much fun with those as anything.

With their stuffed animals from Disneyland.

Carlyn and Annie with their princess pianos from Grandma Linda who came over with Maureen and Delynn later on Christmas. They got little blanket/stuffed animal sets from her too. Belinda and Josh came, but the pictures didn't turn out great. She gave the girls princess phones and Darren got a little toy laptop, which has been used by them all, but is most handy when I'm trying to work on the computer so he feels like he has one too.

I was glad not to have to go anywhere for a few days because it snowed like crazy. We had a great time watching new movies and playing PS3. I had my sinus stuff hit hard and suffered from a migraine for a couple days. On Saturday we had my Potter family party. Speaking of migraines, Rick started a new medicine to hopefully prevent migraines and all it did was knock him out. As soon as we got back from Disneyland (and a little while we were there) he couldn't stay awake if he sat down. It lasted for over a month. It was not fun and didn't prevent migraines in that time either.
This is Rick sleeping during the family party with Darren trying to get the candy canes off the table.

Aunt Susan and Uncle Mark read a silly story for the kids. Half of the great grandkids that were there were from my family (nieces and my kids.) We had a wonderful dinner and a pinata with way more candy than any of us wanted to take home.

We finally got around to visiting the grandmas. This is the kids with Grandma White. Darren loved her Christmas scene and candy dish. She gave the girls $5 and little stuffed animals and Darren got a nice soft blanket. Grandma Hilton gave us money and Grandma Potter gave them stuffed animals so they got quite a few for Christmas and love them all. Oh, my parents gave them books too. Not to leave them out. :)